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Towards a European intelligence policy

01 December 1998
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Decision-making is the essence of any authority, in terms not only of operational effectiveness but also, fundamentally, of political credibility. The task has become more daunting since, with the restoration of shared rules of cohabitation in Europe and hopefully world-wide, the number of actors in national and international relations, as well as of objective factors that transcend national boundaries, has increased exponentially. Consequently, good governance, rather than the protection of abstract state prerogatives, is the goal of the cooperative security environment that the international community is once more attempting to establish. This puts an ever greater burden on the collection and analysis of intelligence, at both the national and international level. It is no accident that the advance that CFSP made with the Amsterdam Treaty has concentrated on a Policy Planning and Early Warning Unit to support the functions of a 'Mr CFSP'.